Old Times Square

I think that this is a very funny time to live in New York. When people talk of "Old New York", they are actually talking about a couple different time periods. The older "Old New York" was a time of gas lamps, Irish and Italian immigrants, and the Five Points. And if you look carefully, you can still see remnants from that era; a patch of exposed cobblestone, the last traces of Lower East Side poverty, tours of Ellis Island and Hell's Kitchen tenements converted into shotgun apartments for the young and single.

But there's another "Old New York", and that's the New York of the 70s and 80s, the broken result of a government's total financial disaster and retreat from social services. And the epicenter of that New York was Times Square, a seedy pit of porno theaters and hustlers. Some look back fondly to this time, before Giuliani and the corporations pushed the scum aside to make room for their homogeneous vision of American culture. But if you look around carefully, you can see a period of history fading away. The abandoned marquee for a grindhouse theater still hangs above a tourist rip-off shop, obscured by skyscrapers and neon.

What a view

Two friends of mine saved so much money by moving to Jersey that they were able to buy a boat. Since I took this picture, they have bought a bigger boat, and now they live on it permanently. Talk about living the dream.

Photo Flashback #3

Sushi bar next to the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. The fish market opens at 4 in the morning or something like that, so what most people do is spend the night out and then get sushi for breakfast. This place easily had the best sushi I've ever had.

42nd Street Library

So finally after a year and a half of living in New York, I decided that I needed to go inside the huge library at 42nd St. This is the one from "Ghostbusters" where all the books go crazy. I actually went to a beer focus group right before this, and sadly, they didn't want my opinion on how their beer tastes, but what I thought of their commercials. Still, I got a hundred bucks out of it, and I trucked down to the library afterwards. I find it amazing the thought and money that used to go into municipal architecture. Ever been inside a library built in the 1960s with orange carpets and yellow plastic chairs? The 42nd library is basically a temple to the wealth of the Astor family. Now philanthropy is more about creating trust funds to fight disease or celebrities running off to Africa to bring home some babies. It used to be about building huge stone monuments with your family portraits inside.

I was walking on the UWS yesterday and I saw this huge condo tower on broadway and 110. Not that long ago I had dinner with my great aunt at a turkish place across the street, and she told me how they were going to build these huge towers that were going to ruin the college town atmosphere. And here they are.

Old Firehouse

Here is one of the most elaborate of the early 1900s firehouses found through out Manhattan. If found this near Chinatown, close to City Hall. Now it's a community theater.

Walking to Yankee Stadium

So since this is probably going to be my last year living in New York, I thought that it would be a good idea to see one more Yankees game before the end of the regular season. I thought that Yankees were going to go to the World Series against the Mets, but they ended up getting beat in the first round by Detroit. They are going to knock down Yankees Stadium and Shea Stadium (where the Mets play) in the next couple of years, as the city is always trying to find ways to create mass development projects. Yankees Stadium, which was built in 1923 or something, is often referred to as "The House That Ruth Built" because the stadium was constructed when Ruth joined the team. But after many many renovations, the exterior of the stadium has been covered in concrete, as well as much of the interior, so it's very hard to see that the stadium is indeed the third oldest baseball stadium in the country. The city has made it very clear that the stadiums are meant to be replaced, blocking any attempt to give them any sort of National Historic designation. And I have mixed feelings about this. Yankee Stadium is a bit of a dump, and it probably should be replaced, but even with all the renovations, Yankee Stadium has a real buzz when you enter, with the crowds and all the history that has gone through it. Will it be missed? Sure, in the same way the old Madison Square Garden is missed, but a lot of Yankees fans are ready for the stadium to go.

I walked to the stadium from my house for the first time. Walking isn't even given as an option when you look at the Yankee's website, and I was a little apprehensive about walking through the South Bronx after dark. But it was a total piece of cake. I just walked down to 155th, crossed over the Macombs Bridge, which I'm shocked to discover was built in 1895. The bridge puts you right at Yankee Stadium, and it took me less than 20 minutes to get there. So for anybody that lives in Washington Heights, walking to the game is really the way to go.

So the beer and the food is way overpriced, but I don't mind it too much, because the Yankees have such an all star line up. One of the fun things that they do at the stadium is when the guys go out on the dirt to clean it up, the loud speaker plays "YMCA", and they stop a couple times and dance. There are also a couple bars right next to the stadium. Stan's is where the real crazies go, and I almost got into a fight when I tried to take a picture inside of there the first time I went. We ended up going to a more expensive and less crowded place next door. I think the Yankees lost that game, but I didn't mind. I was just glad to go to one last game before the season ended.

Photo Flashback 2

This is one of my favorite pictures that I have taken. I took this when I was in Cambodia, I think in a back village somewhere behind Angkor Wat. In the middle of this run down little collection of houses, this statue sat in a little shack, these beautiful streamers running across the entrance. Cambodia was one of the most amazing places that I went to in Asia, but that's the subject big enough for a whole other blog.

Heres a great old house near the monument thats now a school.

The Soilders and Sailors Monument in Riverside Park near 87th Street. This is a very impressive stone structure. It dominates the sky, unlike Grants Tomb, which has a more somber air. I didnt even know this thing existed until I happened to be on a TV shoot in the area.

Old photo I took from a plane

Midtown is not only expanding south to Chelsea, but also west to Hell's Kitchen. The old tenament building are slowly being replaced by yuppie apartment towers. But if you go into the right place like Rudys you can strike up a conversation with someone thats lived in Hell's Kitchen their whole lives, and they have got some real stories to tell.